


We All Have Bad Days

by intergalxtic



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Angst, Barbara is kinda sad, Crying, Delia and Charles arent in this one, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Miscarriage, Miscarriage mentions, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:08:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24107251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intergalxtic/pseuds/intergalxtic
Summary: Barbara and Adam are forced to reminisce about something they would rather forget, after Lydia lashes out.
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland, Lydia Deetz & Adam Maitland & Barbara Maitland, Lydia Deetz & Barbara Maitland
Comments: 2
Kudos: 41





	We All Have Bad Days

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!
> 
> TW - Miscarriage mentions

Adam and Barbara always seem so happy and content. It’s because they are. It’s also because they have to be, because otherwise, “incidents” (as Barbara likes to call them) may occur. They live in the attic of the Deetz’s house, and have since the whole Beetlejuice situation a few months ago. Lydia also seems to have gotten better. At least, she looks like she has. But everyone has their not-so-great moments.

Barbara semi-floats downstairs to spot Lydia, her head facing down on the table, her books sprawled out along the table, her pencils all over the floor. Barbara being the perfectionist she is, bends down to pick them up.

“Are you okay, Lydia?” Barbara asks, placing them on the table, and placing her other hand gently on Lydia’s back. She can feel her sobs vibrating her whole body. 

“Yeah..” Lydia sniffs, lifting her head up, and starts re-organising her books again. It was way too clear that something was wrong.

“Are you sure? You seemed pretty upset…” Barbara says, her eyebrows furrow in concern.

“Yeah, it’s just this stupid maths doesn’t make any sense!” Lydia raises her voice, her fists curling into tight balls. Now Barbara absolutely knew something was wrong, because Lydia is usually incredible at maths.

“Is it something I can help with?” Barbara and Lydia whip their heads around to see Adam, standing by the stairs. He walks quickly towards them, looking over their shoulders to see the work. “Oh! I know this stuff, let me help you?”

“Sure,” Lydia says hesitantly. Adam and Barbara sit on either side of Lydia, and she begins to feel crowded. Adam starts explaining the equations, showing her examples and teaching her different ways of thinking about it, but she just doesn’t understand it. Frustration builds up inside her, and tears rim her eyes, and it is clear to Barbara that they weren’t going to get Lydia to understand it at this moment. 

“Hey, why don’t you take a break? Come back later?” Barbara says softly, placing her hand back onto Lydia’s shoulder, but she shrugs it off and starts hurriedly packing up her books. 

“Are you okay?” Adam asks, sharing Barbara’s concerns about Lydia. She wasn’t their child, but they treated her like she was. 

“I’m fine, just stop asking me.” Lydia mumbles darkly, fumbling around.

“Are you sure? You seem awfully upset-” 

“SHUT UP!” Lydia shouts out of the blue, interrupting Barbara, who was taken aback by the sudden outburst. “STOP TRYING TO HELP ME!”

“Lydia…” Barbara softens, worried about where she was gonna take this outburst.

“NO! STOP PARENTING ME! I DON’T NEED YOU!” Lydia keeps shouting, slamming her books down.

“Lydia, we’re not trying to be your parents, we just wanna help-” Adam starts, but gets interrupted again.

“I DON’T NEED IT! What do you know about parenting anyway!”

“Lydia…” Barbara’s voice quietens, her heart hurting not just for Lydia but for herself.

“No! You died before you could even have your own kids, so stop trying to parent me!” Lydia storms out of the dining room. Barbara looks at the floor, her eyes filling with tears. Sadness takes over her body, followed by guilt and anxiety. Barbara and Adam have secrets, and they can never, ever talk about it. It’s too sad.

“Barbara, are you okay?” Adam reaches out for her, knowing how sensitive she is. 

“Don’t touch me,” Barbara says bluntly, flicking Adam away, and walking up to the attic. Adam hates when Barbara gets like this. She stays sad for days, weeks even, and when it happened, she couldn’t forgive herself, even though it wasn’t her fault. 

  
  


Barbara sat in the tiny room, staring at the photo. The photo Adam thought she got rid of months ago. The guilt was eating her, and her sadness hollowed her body. She wanted to throw it out, she wanted to burn it, do anything she can to get rid of it. But she can’t. She can’t bring herself to do anything to something that looked so innocent, even though it brought her so much pain. 

Staring at the photo made her wonder. She rummaged through the box, flinging the useless junk across the small room. Dust flies everywhere, but Barbara doesn’t care. After emptying the first box, she moves to the second, and finds what she’s looking for. The Handbook for the Recently Deceased.

  
  


Adam sits on the sofa, slumped in an unnatural position, reading some hippie magazine Delia left on the coffee table. He found it incredibly boring, some of the articles were more than controversial, but he needed a distraction from everything. He was just finishing up an article about how to plant flowers when Lydia interrupts. 

“Hey, I just wanted to apologise for being a nuisance earlier, I was upset. It’s been 9 months since she died today, so I’m a bit on edge, you know?” Lydia says sadly yet sincerely, her eyes shifting from Adam, to around the room. “Where’s Barbara?”

“I just assumed she was in the attic?” Adam frowns, his stomach full of anxiety. Lydia shuffles her feet.

“I looked up there before I came down here. She wasn’t there.” Lydia bites her lip, deep in thought. Where could she be? She couldn’t be in the netherworld, right? No. She couldn’t have. But where else?

“I think I know,” Adam states, looking towards the stairs. “Follow me.”

The two of them run up the stairs, and up to the attic, slamming the door open.

“I told you, I already looked here-”

“Shh…” Adam cuts her off. “There’s a small room just off the side. We stored some of the important stuff we didn’t get rid of. It’s her hiding spot.”

“Hiding spot?” Lydia mumbles, seriously confused. What’s wrong with Barbara? Lydia feels a pang of guilt in her stomach. She snaps back into reality when the small door creaks open.

“Barbara?” Adam is shocked at what he sees. Barbara, sitting on the floor, reading the handbook.

“Oh my gosh! Adam!” Barbara exclaims, jumping up, and coming out of the room. “I-I thought I found a way to find our baby, but she never actually had a life, so she didn’t go to the netherworld. If she… if she was born, w-we could have found her.”

“Barbara, You know that’s not true. Born or not.” Adam gently takes the book away from Barbara, and the photo falls to the ground. “Oh, Barbara.”

Tears well up in Barbara’s eyes, a lump forms in her throat and suddenly she can’t hold it back anymore. She collapses onto her knees, sobbing. This grief, it isn’t just something to push down.

“I’m so sorry, Barbara,” Lydia says quietly before dropping to her knees next to Barbara, one hand on her shoulder rubbing circles on her back.

“It’s not your fault, Lydia.” Barbara sniffs, unable to look into her eyes.

“No, I was the one that brought it up-”

“No, you didn’t know.” Barbara interrupts Lydia’s apology, sniffing again. She hates herself for this, for making Lydia feel guilty for something she didn’t even know about. Barbara pushes Lydia’s hand away, and Lydia stood up slowly, her eyes scanning the room. 

Her eyes fall onto the open door, where the junk was. Lydia slowly walks over there, making sure Barbara doesn’t notice, but Adam was too busy fussing over her for either of them to notice. She shuffles through different photo albums, skipping over the pages, trying to find a specific photo. She knows they still have it, she’s seen Adam looking at it when he thinks no-one is looking. She closes the last album, feeling defeated, when she looks into the corner of the tiny room. The photo.

“Adam? Barbara?” Lydia steps out of the room, closing the door after her. “I found something you might like.”

Adam and Barbara look at each other, confused. Lydia kneels on the floor with them and shows them the photo, a small smile breaking onto Barbara’s face. “I thought we lost this.” She mutters.

In the photo, Barbara wore a beautiful a-line style white dress, that went off the shoulder. Lace covered the torso, and her hair in a half-up-half-down, with natural curls. She was laughing with Adam, one hand wrapped around his waist, another on his chest. His suit was a plain black suit, but it looked divine. They looked so simple but so unique. But most importantly, they were happy. 

“I thought so too. I found it a few weeks back, but I never got around to it.” Adam laughs awkwardly. “I’m sorry?”

“You dork. I’m just glad you found it,” Barbara finally brings herself to look up at Adam. 

“Can you tell me about it?” Lydia asks shyly. They look at each other, then started to reveal some of the fun memories. 

Like when Barbara almost tripped when she walked down the aisle. How their first dance was to ‘you’ll be in my heart’ from Tarzan. How Adam broke down in tears while saying his vows. But also the not so good stuff, like how when they were taking the cake home, they dropped it on the floor. Like how there weren’t enough chairs at the venue for everyone. Like how Barbara’s parents never showed up. But that didn’t matter, because the Maitlands had the most fun that they had ever had in their lives.

“It was the best decision I’ve ever made.” Adam turns to face Barbara, touching his forehead to hers, kissing her soft lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Barbara smiles widely. It didn’t matter that they were dead, or that they were all sitting on the floor with tears still falling down their faces, but they were together. And that’s the most important thing.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed !!
> 
> I wrote this a while ago, and have sorta changed my views on this topic, and I'm sorry this isn't Delia centred but I hope you liked it anyways!


End file.
